Current mood:

melancholy

Coupling: Flawed Diagnosis Part 3
Rating: PG, possibly to increase later.
Spoilers: None
Paring: House/Cameron
Notes: This series includes House and Cameron as an established couple. This would be some time early in their relationship, so it's before the other to enstallments Licentious Tendancies and Moody Disposition. You do not need to read any of those to understand this one because even though these do all take place in the same universe they can be read as stand alones without any problem
Previous Chapters: Part 1
Part 2

Summary: House notices that Cameron is acting a little off, and being the loveable idiot he is, makes a bad assumption about what it is instead of simply asking. However, this time he may have gone too far.

After eavesdropping on Allison’s phone call House planted himself inside his office to try to figure out what to do next.

Chase and Foreman arrived a couple hours later. They puttered around for a while getting coffee, and yapping about various mindless topics, before finally sticking their heads into the office to give him updates about the patient (ie: nothing noteworthy), and inquire about why Allison hadn’t arrived yet.

That was the first House had heard about her since leaving her in the office area. Apparently she’d scurried away to her clandestine meeting with Jimmy in the mean time.

He told them that he had no idea, and then ordered that they go find something useful to do.

When he was left alone again it occurred to him that it would occur to her that her presence would be missed if she was late. She wasn’t that dumb at least.

He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed his voice mail. Sure enough, there was a hurried message from her saying that she needed to take a personal day. He snapped the phone shut.

This was total crap. It was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to get involved an idealist, romantic with a like Allison-… like Cameron, in the first place. And it would just figure she went for Wilson, talk about two drama queens who were never more made for each other.

Of course he didn’t have proof, but he might as well go ahead and get it. He flipped open his phone again, and punched in the numbers.

*****

House sat on the table in exam room 12 tapping his cane on the floor when Wilson opened the door and stepped in.

He looked around and nodded, “Yeah somehow I figured when you paged with an ‘emergency’ that it didn’t actually have anything to do with a patient, but why are you all the way at the end of the hall? Was exam room 1 already taken?”

“Nurses and Cuddy less likely to come down here,” House explained.

“I see. Well what’s up?”

“Good question.”

Wilson sighed, “Come on House, I’m really not in the mood to search for the magic word today. What do you want?”

“I meant what’s up with you and Allison.”

“You know about that? Did she tell you?” Wilson asked with surprise.

“No,” House answered, “You should have said something.”

“I know, but-” Wilson tried to explain but House cut him off.

“I would have cut you in on the action,” House continued, even though that was a lie, “There would have been some ground rules of course-”

“What?!” Wilson demanded, “Are you saying you think we’re sleeping together?”

House shrugged, but it was obvious what the answer to his question was.

“Oh hell, House! You actually think I would sleep with your girlfriend behind your back?”

“Yeah, because you’re just a model of fidelity,” House replied sarcastically.

“Screw you! You are a complete idiot you know that?” Wilson shook his head, “If you want to know what’s going on with Cameron, you’ll have to ask her yourself. I have work to do.”

With that Wilson turned back though the door, letting it drift shut behind him.

****

The team spent the rest of the day figuring out that their patient’s symptoms were caused by folic acid deficiency.

After beginning treatment with supplements, the three men slowly finished up paperwork and drifted out of the office.

House started out heading toward his home, but after a couple blocks he swung the ‘Vette around, prompting honks and colorful gestures from other drivers. He shifted quickly through the gears until he was racing toward Cameron’s apartment.

Ten minutes of driving, and a painful hike up the stairs later, he was rapping on her front door while grumbling about why her apartment didn’t have an elevator.

There was no answer at first, so he pounded with his cane again.

The door opened, revealing a bleary eyed Allison Cameron.

“House?” she asked, blinking as she became more alert, “Is everything okay?”

“Nope,” he answered, stepping past her into the apartment, “You weren’t at work today.”

“Yeah,” she shut the door, “I’m sorry, but I left a message on your voice mail. Was there an emergency?”

“Why weren’t you at work?” he asked.

“I just wasn’t feeling well,” she answered, tugging at the waistband of her pajama pants. He studied her curiously. She was lying…but not completely.

“So what’s going on between you and Jimmy?”

Her mouth dropped open, “You know about that?”

“Oh, wow. Déjà vu,” he commented.

Her eyes wrinkled in confusion, “Did he tell you?”

“No, he said you’d have to do your own confessing,” House answered, “Though, not in those many words.”

She sighed, “Look I’m sorry I just didn’t want to face it yet-”

“Why not?”

“‘Why not’?” she repeated back.

“Sure, it’s understandable that you’ve gotten bored. After all, it has been five whole weeks. You forget that most of my ‘relationships’ don’t last more than one night?” he snarked, “I’m not rich enough for the hookers to bother to stick around.”

“What?” she asked, with a look of complete bewilderment.

“Though maybe you wanted me to guess,” he speculated, “I don’t blame you. After all having an affair with Wilson is certainly not a difficult diagnosis to make. At PPTH there’s plenty of ‘case studies’ to learn the symptoms from-”

“Excuse me?” she demanded, “That’s what you were talking about? You think I’m cheating on you?”

“Whatever,” he muttered, limping back toward the door.

“No!” she quickly stepped around him, placing herself in front of the door, “Not ‘whatever’. How could you think that?”

“What do I care?” he shrugged, although part of him was thinking about how amazing it was that even after all this time she could be baffled by how someone could be so mean.

“You obviously do care, or else why would you be here accusing me of sleeping with your best friend? If you didn’t care you’d be at home calling one of those hookers you talk about so much.”

He winced inwardly. Damn, she had him there.

“Hmm, that’s a good idea actually. Move aside and maybe I can get out of here in time to pick up the normal supplies before I got home. You know condoms, extra large bottle of Jagermeister…”

Her chest rose and fell heavily as she glared at him in anger.

“You want to know why I was meeting with Wilson? Fine! This is why!” She huffed as she reached forward, grabbed his hand, and brought it up underneath her tanktop.

She pressed his palm hard against her left breast, and maneuvered his fingers into the right place. There was no need, though; he felt the lump almost immediately.

He watched as she rolled her lips together, and swallowed, “There you go.”

He palpated the lump with the pads of his fingers one more time. It was definitely harder than the surrounding tissue, but he couldn’t tell whether it was solid or not. Of course breast exams hardly ever could.

He slowly slid his hand off her breast and down her stomach before it dropped out the bottom of her tanktop.

“Eighty percent of lumps found are benign, Cameron,” he said as he dropped his hand, “Especially in women under thirty-five.”

She nodded, “Yes, but not in ones who have a personal history of cancer.”

TBC...

Sorry for the cliffhanger but I couln't resist. Hopefully, you don't find this too overly dramatic. I just had this idea for Cameron's back story that no one had every done before so I figured I'd give it a try. I promise I'm trying to not make it into a soap opera. Well, you can let me know what you think.